Blossom Time Balloon Festival balloon inflation

This first photo was taken last Sunday evening in Chagrin Falls, OH.  The hot air balloons were supposed to fly that evening but an impending thunderstorm and winds out of the East which would have directed the balloons into Cleveland airspace caused them to cancel the launch.  To satisfy the crowd, they did agree to inflate the balloons and invite the fans to get a closeup look, inviting them onto the field for about 30 minutes.  I was intrigued with the beautiful colors and patterns and took many photos similar to this with overlapping balloon patterns.  I included people in many of the shots merely to emphasize the the relative size of the balloons.  I have seen them in the sky on a number of occasions, but had never realized how large they really are!

Cleveland Sandcastle

The second photo is one that I photographed last year around the Port of Cleveland.  Cleveland’s famous Terminal Tower was shot rising above a gravel pile sitting at the port.  As I looked at this photo recently, I was reminded of a sandcastle at the beach.  With some post-production editing, my intent was to complete that look.  How did I do?

Bath National Cemetery, Bath, NY

On this Memorial Day weekend, and every Memorial Day, we need to remember what this National Holiday is all about.  I’ve visited a number of National Cemeteries and I’m always moved emotionally by them.

Unknown Soldiers, Gettysburg National Cemetery, PA

This year Memorial Day has special meaning for me and my family.  We lost my father this year.  He was a Veteran of WW II and was seriously injured in France, suffering a severe head injury which left him hemiplegic from the date of his injury in 1944 until his passing a few months ago.  He was a hero in war, retrieving a Browning Automatic Rifle (BAR) from a downed soldier thus making him the desired target of the enemy.  To our family however, he was more of a hero for the life he lived following the war!  Despite his disability, he was a wonderful, husband, father, businessman, and friend.  He never complained about his injury and never let it get in his way!  He was an excellent example of why his generation was and is known as “The Greatest Generation”!

On Memorial Day remember what it’s all about!  Think about and pay your respects to our fallen veterans!

Cool refreshment

While still trying to pick out and photograph runners from the two organizations, I was also shooting interesting looking runners as they drank and showered themselves with water.  While it was still fairly early in the morning, the sun was bright and the temperature was rising!  After seeing this first photo I decided to make an effort to capture more like it, with water frozen in time being splashed on faces, heads and backs, in an effort to cool themselves down.

The big spill

These two photos were my favorites, capturing the spilling and splashing water at high shutter speeds and recording slices of time!

Old sawmill cart and new weeds

I shot this photo at an old sawmill where I was shooting some of the old machinery, a subject that I enjoy shooting and converting to black and white images.  What caught my eye with this scene though was the juxtaposition of the old rusting wheel of the lumber cart, the steel track, and the new, young weeds of spring!  No black and white for this shot!  The bright green weeds screamed to be shown in color, in contrast to the fading red and orange colors of the cart and wheel.

A simple shot and another example of seeing commonplace items and scenes that are easily overlooked.

An elaborate brass standpipe

I have been planning for some time now to do a blog posting incorporating photos of standpipes that I have captured in different cities and locations.  Today another blogger that I follow, Nick Mayo, posted a standpipe photo http://nickexposed.com/2012/05/03/which-to-turn/ on his blog “Nick Exposed”.  That prompted me to go ahead and post my photos today also.

I believe many photographers see things that others do not.  In particular, commonplace things that most take for granted.  Back in 2003, in NYC, I started noticing standpipes and decided to photograph them wherever I saw them with the intent to incorporate them in a poster of some sort.  These photos come from my observations over these past 9 years.

Standpipe with yellow caps

I am posting them in order from very elaborate to very ordinary.

A painted standpipe and it’s little brother

Painted with yellow caps

Fairly simple twin sets

So, there we have it, a collection of standpipes from elaborate to quite simple, all serving the same purpose, to fight fires.  A very important function that we take for granted.

I’ll continue to look for and photograph standpipes.  They can be quite interesting looking yet most of us don’t even notice them.

What interesting things are you overlooking everyday?

The Duquesne Incline

If you’ve been to Pittsburgh, PA, you’ve no doubt seen or maybe even ridden on one of the inclines that rise up from the banks of the Monongahela River to the top of the Mount Washington area of the city.  The Duquesne Incline, shown in these photos, is quite picturesque with 2 bright red cars which pass one another going up and down the track.  This photo has a slight watercolor filter affect applied to it giving it a painterly look.

Duquesne Incline Machinery room

If you go inside of the incline station at the top of Mt. Washington, you are able to view the working machinery which moves the 2 cars up and down the mountain.  I’ve always loved photos of machinery and particularly in black and white.  This machinery is actually bright orange with green railings and beams all around, but I prefer this type of photo converted to black, white and shades of gray.

Tower City Escalator taken with Hipstamatic App

The 2 photos in this posting were taken with my iPhone 4s, using an application called Hipstamatic, which simulates some of the old toy plastic cameras that have become popular once again.  It also simulates a variety of old films.  This location does not look kindly on photographers taking photos with large DSLR cameras, nor do most shopping malls.  I’ve been asked to leave Tower City on a couple of occasions when I’ve been shooting photos there.  The iPhone made my shooting inconspicuous and they really don’t mind tourists taking photos with what they would consider to be “non-professional” cameras.

Tower City Skylight using Hipstamatic App

I was really pleased with the results that I got using my cellphone as another camera that I have to work with!  It’s just another brush in my paintbox and I love some of the results I get with it!  It will never take the place of my “more professional” cameras, but I won’t think of cellphone cameras in the quite the same way anymore.

Charlotte Amalie Street Scene

While visiting St. Thomas in the U.S. Virgin Islands a few months ago I wore 2 hats as a photographer.  In fact I do that at almost any location I go to as a tourist and a photographer.  One hat involves capturing those record photos that purely document the trip.  The other hat is all about finding the artistic or publication worthy photo.  The photo above, looking down a hill in downtown Charlotte Amalie, the capitol city of St. Thomas, toward the harbor, was meant to be publication worthy but I wasn’t too crazy about it.  That is until a month later, looking at an issue of “Inside Edge” a Sony Camera magazine, the cover photo was a very similar scene looking up a hill in Cuba.  The scene was very similar with wires and electric/telephone poles prominent in the photo.    http://discover.store.sony.com/insideedge/ie_alpha_nex_1.html

Once I saw Peter Sills’ photo on the cover of a magazine, I reevaluated my own photo and decided that it was worthy after all.  It shows some of the dichotomy of St. Thomas, poverty and modest living conditions living right alongside of elaborate cruise ships and tourist amenities!

Apartment and hanging laundry in Charlotte Amalie.

At the very bottom of the hill, looking back toward the interior of the island, I came across this scene of laundry hanging outside of a very modest apartment building.

Fresh coconut!

Then, within a few blocks, standing on a corner surrounded by jewelry shops, I came upon this fresh coconut vendor, waving a machete in the air!  He put on quite a show, slicing open coconuts held in his left hand while weilding the machete in his right.  It was a real slice of the life of the islanders, making a living from the much wealthier tourists.

These were some of the types of photos I truly wanted to capture in St. Thomas, more than merely the typical record shots of beaches, resorts and cruise ships!

Administration Building

If you’ve never been there, or even if you have and may not remember it, you may be thinking, what a beautiful mansion or resort hotel!  Well, it did house special guests.  It is the administration building at the old abandoned Mansfield Reformatory, one of Ohio’s former maximum security prisons!  I don’t think they build them like that anymore!

Inside the walls however, tells a very different story!

A rusting 2 prisoner cell.

Closed in 1990, the facility now sits as a rusting, peeling edifice of stone, steel and paint flakes.  Tours are available on weekends with special emphasis on ghost tours.  The facility has quite a reputation for being haunted!

The one and two person cells were very small and confining and were stacked like animal crates one on top of another for 5 and 6 stories.  Solitary confinement cells had solid steel doors with only slots for passing food in and for observation.

Cells stacked to form a cell block.

There is a new, modern facility now built next door.  It looks much different and reflects society’s different view of incarceration today.

The history of the Mansfield Reformatory includes the filming of a number of major motion pictures.  Most notably, “The Shawshank Redemption” and scenes from “Air Force One”.

Ohio Historical Marker.

About an hour and a half south of Cleveland, the facility makes a fascinating subject for photographers!  Beauty on the outside, something else entirely on the inside!  What a contrast.  They do warn however that the peeling paint contains lead and may pose a hazard.

Fairport Harbor West Breakwater Lighthouse and Beachcombers

Last Friday I decided to get some work done early and head out to Mentor Headlands State Park to do a little beachcombing with a couple of camera and lens combinations.  With me, trudging through the sand were my Nikon D700 with the Nikkor 70-200 mm 2.8 lens and my older Nikon D200 with the Nikkor 300 mm 2.8 lens on a monopod.  Lots of weight to carry through the thick sand on what turned out to be an approximate 2 mile hike!

It was still quite cool out, especially on the shore of Lake Erie whose water temperature is still in the 40s.  That didn’t stop the other beachcombers from wandering along the water’s edge looking for interesting looking rocks and beach glass.

Gathering Beach Glass

While walking along the edge of one of the sand dunes, I even came across the super hero, The Flash!  I thought I was having trouble walking thru the soft sand!  The Flash was up to his ankle in the stuff!

The Flash trudges through the sand at Mentor Headlands